


Not That

by drbubblegum



Category: Karneval
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, M/M, because why the fuck not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-10
Updated: 2014-01-10
Packaged: 2018-02-09 11:55:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1982043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drbubblegum/pseuds/drbubblegum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jaeger pilots shouldn't smile that damn much.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not That

Everyone knows the story. How he’s the only pilot to single-man a jaeger for longer than three hours without having his brain melt. How he’s got no family left. How he’d just disappeared. Gareki doesn’t know why Hirato brought him back, this washed up former pilot who’d rather play games and eat sweets than fight monsters, but that shithead’s always up to something.

And Gareki is just a J-tech, he can’t say shit.

Still, it had been his job to restore the Nyanperona (what a fucking travesty of a name, too), so he gets to watch the trials to find Yogi’s new co-pilot. He knows no one will be quite the same match that Miumarie was. It’s impossible to replicate the bond of siblings between two strangers. But the world was ending, as Akari is fond of reminding everyone. The world was ending and they needed a goddamn miracle to stop it.

* * *

"Hirato-san, let Gareki-kun try."

Gareki blinks. “What?”

But Yogi smiles. Hirato does, too, nodding at the bo staff in Yogi’s hand.

"What?" He says again.

"See if you can do any better." That fucker is  _laughing at him_.

Gareki grits his teeth and takes the staff, settling his weight on his front foot, bouncing a little. Fine. He can play this game.

* * *

It’s nothing like training.

It’s exhilarating.

* * *

He’s not a pilot. No matter how much Yogi pleads and smiles and plies him with shitty candy, Gareki’s just a tech. Not a goddamn pilot.

Still, he’ll be fitted for a drive suit the next morning.

* * *

"Why?" Nai asks.

"It’s  _annoying_. I  _told_  them, I’m a J-tech—Just because I know that awful yellow cat piece of shit inside and out doesn’t mean I want to  _drive the fucking thing_!”

Nai gives him a serious look, like he needs a second to process all of that. He probably does. The kid takes  _everything_  seriously, and Gareki likes that about his roommate. Even if it means any and all sarcasm goes right over his head.

"But—I thought you used to want to be a pilot?"

Gareki stares at him.

"Didn’t Gareki take the courses at school?"

Fuck. “Yeah, but—”

"So now you can, is something bad about that?"

“ _No_. Yes! I—” Gareki makes a strangled noise. His jaw hurts with how much he’s been clenching it today.

Before he can clamber up to his bed and flop down dramatically do end the conversation, there’s a knock on the door. It echoes through the room.

"Do you want me to—"

“ _No._ ”

* * *

"Gareki-kun!"

"Go away."

"Ah, well, I was hoping—you’d come with me? See there’s this thing—I wanted to show you a—it’s really, really cool!"

Yogi’s hands interlace with themselves, twisting and stretching as he tries to work through what he’s saying. Like he’s nervous or some shit, and isn’t that stupid? Why the hell would a pilot be nervous around a  _tech_?

Gareki frowns at him. “What is it.”

"It’s, um, can you just please come?" Yogi stares down at his feet for a second before glancing back up at Gareki. And he knows he shouldn’t think it’s cute, a grown ass man looking at him through his eyelashes. 

He clicks his tongue and steps out into the hallway. Yogi brightens immediately.

"Great!" He says.

* * *

It’s a long walk, wherever they’re going. A long walk that lets Gareki’s mind wander. Too much probably. His eyes zero in on Yogi’s ass for the twelfth time, and his brain reminds him about how Yogi’d pinned him to the mat earlier that day, how Gareki’d straddled that very same ass trying to keep Yogi down—

_Goddammit._

* * *

"See, it’s beautiful, isn’t it?" Yogi’s smiling again, pointing out the same skyline Gareki’d known all his life.

He shrugs. “I guess, I grew up here.”

Something falls in Yogi’s shoulders as he lets out a quiet  _oh_. He says it’s only his second time in Karasuna. He didn’t remember much about the first trip, just the skyline, and how the one building to the east is purple.

It’s quiet for a few minutes. A tense quiet. Gareki tries to tamp down on the unnecessary urges poking at him—he was  _not_  going to sexually harass a co-worker, thanks very much.

He catches Yogi watching him. Yogi flushes, bright even in the dim light of the stars and streetlights far below.

"I guess—" Yogi swallows, twiddles his thumbs together awkwardly. "I guess we should head back. Big day tomorrow, after all."

"Sure," Gareki says. Yogi’s answering smile wobbles weakly.

* * *

Gareki thinks he’ll go through with the test.

He doubts they’ll be able to drift. And really, he thinks that might be better for them. He can’t deny, though, that there’s some connection—they’re a them, him and Yogi, even if they’ve only known one another two days, he understands that.

It’s a weird feeling.

* * *

The suit is heavier than he expected. Akari explained how it’s all carbon-fiber and the joints are reinforced, as are the connecting forearm plates and boots. There shouldn’t be a problem with the equipment, but there probably will be one with  _him_ , seeing as Gareki is a half trained J-tech who shouldn’t be anywhere near the cockpit of a jaeger unless he’s got a drill in his hand.

Gareki scoffs at him. Tells him he’s being dramatic. Akari gives him a black look and says he’s as bad as that idiot Hirato.

* * *

Gareki stares at the Nyanperona.

For the millionth time he wonders who’s bright idea it was to make a 300 foot, yellow, cat robot.

Yogi bounds up to him, and his hair fucking  _bounces_. That’s when Gareki notices the yellow of his hair matches the enamel of the jaeger.

He’s made a terrible mistake.

* * *

Ikami’s voice is steady over the LOCCENT speakers.

"Initializing drift sequence."

Gareki tries to clear his mind. Don’t chase the RABIT. Don’t freak out when there’s someone new poking around in his head. Don’t think about what Yogi’s mouth would feel like around his cock. Don’t do it.  _Don’t_.

* * *

Instead it’s a flash of lightning and he’s drowning.

* * *

Alarms are going off somewhere. Strange, this wasn’t his parents’ lab.

* * *

Gareki opens his eyes. He’s in the cockpit still, hooked up to the left harness. He sighs. Okay. He might have dropped out of sync, but he didn’t fuck anything up, nothing’s broken, it just proves his point that he’s not cut out to be a pilot.

Except it’s raining.

It shouldn’t rain in the cockpit.

Wait— _where’s the other half of the cockpit_ _?_

* * *

Someone—no, Yogi—is sobbing. 

"Yogi?"

"Miu…Miu…Miu come back—"

Yogi’s hanging in the harness Gareki thought he’d been connected to, limp and soaked with frigid rain. Gareki steps up to him, grabs him by the shoulders and shakes him. “ _Yogi?_ ”

This has to be a memory—and what an awful one to be sucked into, too. Knifehead.

A kaiju roars, and the jaeger trembles as its hit by something, somehow it stays standing. Yogi stiffens. His head flicks up, glaring through what’s left of the cockpit window at the monster, ignoring Gareki completely. He looks feral. A shiver runs up Gareki’s spine, leaving him cold.

In the light sparking from broken cables it almost looks like Yogi’s hair is  _silver_ —

* * *

It shuts down.

* * *

After, Yogi disappears.

* * *

Akari yells at Hirato for a solid half hour. Apparently he’d been against this from the get-go. Gareki wonders how someone with all that mental trauma was even in consideration to pilot the restored Nyanperona. And then he remembers there was no one else.

* * *

"He blocked it out, you absolute  _dumbass_ —a trained monkey could tell you he wasn’t fit for duty. Not with that kind of self-induced amnesia. And now he  _knows_ , he  _remembers_ , and it’s more than Miumarie and Knifehead and Rinoll, now, Hirato. Yogi’s sanity is  _extremely_  fragile, and you’ve gone and  _fucked_  with it because you don’t know when to  _stop_ —”

* * *

That explains how Yogi had been so cheerful and  _sweet_  all this time. He’d known enough to remember he’d been a pilot, that his sister had been his co-pilot, and that the Nyanperona was his, but apparently he just couldn’t take remembering everything else.

The comment the night before makes more sense. How he’d sort of remembered the purple building.

Gareki wonders if his sister pointed it out to him.

* * *

It’s hours later, and Gareki’s parked himself in the back corner of the mess, nursing an overcooked steak and a cup of old coffee. The steak is cold, he’d gotten it long ago and just couldn’t quite muster the energy to eat it. Smells good though, and he thinks it helps a little.

His hands shake a little, so he keeps a close hold to his coffee mug.

Nai has been by to pester him about the failed test. Gareki couldn’t really muster up much with that conversation, either.

* * *

Alarms blare. It’s a double event. Yogi’s still nowhere to be found.

* * *

He’s good at fixing things, Gareki. That’s how he’d managed to become a J-tech anyway, especially seeing as he never had any proper education. He was just good at taking things apart, putting them together and having them work  _better_ .

So it’d make sense if he could fix this, right?

The thought pushes him off his chair. He grabs a handful of candy and clanks down the hall, still bolted into his drive suit. He walks and walks and walks and walks more until he finds the room that looks out over Karasuna, right at the purple building.

The room is dark, and it looks empty. But in the far corner, he sees a spot of darkness a little more solid than the rest. Yogi. It has to be.

So he stomps over as quietly as possible and sits down next to him. The hard plates of their suits clack as their shoulders brush. Gareki offers up his pilfered candy.

* * *

They stay quiet for a long while. Every now and then there’s the crinkle of paper as Yogi unwraps another fruit chew. Gareki’s fine with the silence. He thinks maybe it’s good.

Except they don’t have time for it.

* * *

The secondary alarms shriek for about five seconds before all the lights fizzle out. Garek blinks. Hell, even a portion of the city went dark. Almost like an EMP, but kaiju don’t have that kind of capability.

A tinny voice echoes out of an old tube in the corner. “ _Nyanperona, calling Nyanperona to active duty. Report to Hanger 2C in five minutes!_ ”

Yogi stares at the tube.

Gareki says his name quietly.

Yogi stares at him.

* * *

"We should go."

"I can’t."

"You have to."

"I hate fighting. Miu—Miumarie was always the better pilot anyway, take her."

"She’s dead."

"…I should be."

"You’re not. They need us."

"But—"

"Did you want me to be your co-pilot or not?"

"I just wanted to kiss you."

* * *

Gareki stares at him.

For the life of him, he couldn’t follow the logic in that statement. Somehow badgering someone to mind meld was a form of flirting to Yogi. What the fuck.

Still, that wasn’t too hard of a request to fill.

* * *

He tasted like apples and tears, but his mouth was warm and moved against his almost perfectly. As far as first kisses go, Gareki’s had worse. Besides, he thinks this is more of a promise.

Something shifts, and he finds himself pulled into Yogi’s lap, clutching at the plates of carbon fiber across his shoulders as Yogi scrabbles at his waist. They’re not drifting, Gareki knows it, but he can feel something click into place—a quiet epiphany of  _this is how it’s done_ _, this is how to not fuck it up_.

* * *

The tube echoes again, so Gareki pulls away. Yogi lets out a soft, needy noise. Gareki smiles to himself. Yeah, he knows how that feels. But as much as both of them might want it, this isn’t the right time. After. After the double event.

Then they’ll have time.

"We have to go?" Yogi asks.

Gareki nods. “Yeah.”

"It’ll work, right?"

"It has to."

"Right," Yogi sighs. He brushes his thumb across Gareki’s cheekbone and the smile is barely there, but he doesn’t look quite so hollow. "Okay then. Let’s go."

* * *

Akari yells at them for being a full two minutes late. Gareki rolls his eyes, but Yogi squeaks and runs for the jaeger. Then Akari hollers about Gareki holding everyone up because at least the other idiot is headed in the right direction.

Gareki flips him off.

* * *

It’ll work. It has to.

* * *

Yogi looks across the cockpit and smiles. He’s still a little broken, Gareki can see it in the red of his eyelids and the pallor of his skin. But he thinks that he helped fix him up a little. So he gives Yogi a nod.

* * *

They drift.

**Author's Note:**

> [On Tumblr.](http://drbubblegum.tumblr.com/post/72852601921)


End file.
